Sixteen NASA Astronauts flew on the first six Space Shuttle flights, STS-1 through STS-6, and had their official NASA portraits taken wearing gold/brown colored pressure suits. They were slightly modified pressure suits used by the SR-71 and U-2 high altitude pilots and were made by the David Clark Co. and were model S1030A Ejection Escape Suits. These are officially called Launch/Entry Suits (LES) and would pressurize automatically in the event of a loss of pressure in the orbiter. For the first four Space Shuttle flights, called Orbital Flight Tests (OFT), the orbiter had ejection seats installed and the LESs contained parachutes to be used in the event of an early launch failure or a low altitude approach and landing failure. But after STS-4, the two ejection seats were removed since only the CDR and PLT could use them and all subsequent flights had at least four crew members.

Presented here are autographed gold Launch/Entry Suit portraits by the first sixteen NASA Astronauts who flew on the Space Shuttle. Starting with STS-7, NASA Astronauts had their official NASA portraits taken wearing other types of space suits or just official clothing worn while in orbit. Putting together a set of autographed gold LES portraits by these sixteen astronauts is not easy, but is an appropriate and desirable way to begin any collection of autographed portraits by all the Space Shuttle astronauts. Or it would be an impressive set just by itself.